| Mile | 257.3 |
| Miles Since Last Update | 15.5 |
| Day | 26 |
Started pouring rain last night and got into the 30s for sure. Dry and fairly warm in the cabin. Rain is supposed to let up around 9ish so having a late start today.
Bladerunner has decided to call it here because of his knee and get picked up rather than push to hot springs. I think I’m going to be the only one leaving this farm today. Not super excited about going back to being alone on this trip, but it does give me some more freedom as far as scheduling goes
Lodging availability in hot springs is real funky. I may get stuck just getting a kind of expensive AirBnB. O well.
Today is a tricky one to put into words. I left late hoping to have dodged the rain. Bladerunner cheered me on from his cabin porch. It was drizzling still. As I made it a few hundred feet up the drizzle turned to sleet. By the time I cleared 1000 ft the trail was covered in snow.
I figured since I’d been bitching about how hot it was, now was the time to eat my words and get something done in the cold. Made it to groundhog shelter around 1pm and decided to push further. Checked my math and it was only 15, not 17 miles so seemed doable and the snow was helping my spirits. Took two limitless pills and decided roaring fork shelter was the play.
As soon as I stepped past groundhog the sun came out and things started to melt. I thought this was the end of cold fun but by the time I got to Max Patch I was wading thru 6ish inches of snow.
Got to the shelter and Madeline from NH (who I met at the farm) was there. We chatted a bit and shortly after a guy named Tinker showed up. Id seen him in a ton of the shelter log books, apparently he is a bit of a celebrity.
Overall today has me feeling good. Feel good about doing 15 miles. Feel good about rolling solo for a while. Feel good about being in the snow. Don’t feel my toes too well right now but that’s a tomorrow problem.
Snowman made by the NH boys supposedly
Cold weather hammock